Effects of diethylstilbestrol (DES) medication during pregnancy: report from a symposium at the 10th International Congress of ISPOG

This article is a report based on presentations at the symposium Effects of Diethylstilbestrol (DES) Medication during Pregnancy at the conference Reproductive Life, 10th International Congress of The International Society of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynaecology (ISPOG) in Stockholm, Sweden June 14-17, 1992. The objective of this symposium, chaired by Eylard van Hall and Ingar Palmlund, was to provide the basis for a discussion of how the risks of DES had been evaluated in different countries. In the general discussion following the presentations everybody present expressed concerns that DES might still be given to pregnant women in many parts of the world, called for measures to alert medical professionals world-wide to the hazards of the use of DES, and requested measures to effect an international ban of DES in medication for pregnant women. The presentations of different aspects of the risks of DES medication during pregnancy were made by the following persons (here in alphabetical order): Roberta Apfel, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Cambridge Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA, who together with Susan Fisher has authored the book To do No Harm: DES and the Dilemmas of Modern Medicine and articles on psychological problems with origins in the practice of giving DES to pregnant women. Simone Buitendijk, Director, Perinatal Epidemiology Netherlands Foundation, an epidemiologist who has played an active role in the association of patients exposed to DES in her country. Anne Cabau, practising gynaecologist in Paris, France, who by an investigation in 1982 and many subsequent articles alerted the French medical community and general public to the risks of Distilbène, the most common DES drug in France. John-Gunnar Forsberg, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Lund, Sweden, who for many years has investigated the effects of DES on the developing fetus, primarily in mice. Ingar Palmlund, researcher at the Department of International Health Care Research (IHCAR), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, who is engaged in a study of the societal evaluation of the risks of DES, comparing the experiences in different countries. Zusammenfassung Bei diesem Artikel handelt es sich um einen auf dem Symposium Effects of DES Medication during Pregnancy (Die Auswirkung der Behandlung mit DES (Diäthylstilböstrol) in der Schwangerschaft) anläßlich der Konferenz Reproductive Life auf dem 10. Internationalen Kongress der International Society of